It was rumours of a sex scandal that first brought Phra Khom, a Buddhist monk famed throughout Thailand for his talents as a preacher, to the attention of police in April 2023.
But even hardened investigators were stunned by what they uncovered when they raided his temple, Wat Pa Thammakhiri, hidden in a green valley a few hours' drive from Bangkok.
Suitcases stuffed with cash. Gold bars buried in the hills. A paper trail of bank transfers to the monk's sister's account totalling $2.2 million.
In all, Phra Khom, along with his co-conspirators, had embezzled more than $12 million of temple donations from his many faithful followers.
He was arrested, along with six other monks, and sentenced earlier this year to 468 years in prison.
Phra Khom's fall from grace grabbed national headlines, but it wasn't the first time a member of the Thai Buddhist clergy had been caught committing crimes.
In Thailand, it can seem like barely a week goes by without reports of monks being charged with drug possession, drunk driving, corruption, violent crimes, even rape and murder.
That's not to mention a slew of less serious – but equally scandalous – reports of monk misbehaviour, such as the case of Phra Kato, a handsome young monk and social media influencer whose sexual tryst with a model was exposed in early 2022.
Their clandestine love affair briefly set the nation abuzz after they were caught discussing it on a leaked audio recording.
Phra Kato was promptly disrobed, but his disgrace only deepened when he was later accused of embezzling temple funds and attempting to pay "hush money" to his lover and a journalist pursuing the story – claims he has denied.
While some Thais have become desensitised to such stories, others see the resulting erosion of public faith in the monkhood as a problem of national significance.
In Thailand, where more than 90 per cent of people are Buddhists and monks are still treated with special reverence, Buddhism remains one of the key pillars of society.
But some fear that pillar is cracking under the weight of mounting scandals involving some of the nation's estimated 280,000 holy men.
Those who put on the saffron robes are expected to model lives of moderation and virtue, holding to Buddhism's central teachings – no killing, stealing, sex, lies or drugs and alcohol – and observing dozens more rules in their daily lives.
Phra Paisal Visalo, an abbot, or head monk, at one of the country's most respected monasteries in the north-eastern province of Chaiyaphum, is troubled by how many monks are failing to uphold that moral code.
"There is a lot of scandal," he says, sitting cross-legged on the floor of his monk's house, perched above a peaceful lake.
"I would call the situation in Buddhism now, especially as far as the monks are concerned, is in crisis."
Phra Paisal, who has been a monk for four decades, is among those now calling for urgent reform to Thailand's religious institutions to fix what he sees as a growing crisis of faith.
"I'm afraid Buddhism in Thailand has no future," he says.
THE TEMPLE WITH NO MONKS
Moral lapses in the clergy aren't just limited to a few rogue monks. In some cases, whole temples have been corrupted, often with devastating effects for the faithful.
In November 2021, at a temple amid the swaying palm plantations of Chumphon province, in southern Thailand, all four monks including the abbot were swept up in a drug raid.
Police found methamphetamine pills, meth pipes and dozens of bottles of urine the monks had been storing in their sleeping quarters. The monks all tested positive for the drug and were disrobed.
"If you ask me, was I shocked? I could not imagine all the monks in this temple were addicted," says the local village chief, Terdsak Pudwanna, as we stand at the temple's front gate in the baking morning sun.
For a time, the temple was left without any monks at all.
Terdsak has seen how the scandal continues to reverberate through his community long after the initial shock.
Buddhists depend on the monks at their local temple to do daily alms collection for religious "merit making" and perform a range of other rites and ceremonies.
"When those monks were arrested for using narcotics, the villagers who still had faith felt like they had been betrayed," says Terdsak.
Many in the village have kept their family's ashes in burial boxes, known as "stupas", on the temple grounds for generations, but now feel they can't return.
For some, their ties to the temple have been severed, perhaps permanently.
At a roadside restaurant on the edge of a palm plantation, local waitress Ladawan says she remembers the day of the raid vividly – it was the day of her father's funeral.
"We were moving our father’s body from our home to the temple and I was surprised to see that there were police officers at the temple," she says.
Ladawan had hoped to one day lay her father's ashes to rest at the temple but after the drug bust, she decided against it.
"I feel upset," she says, her eyes welling with tears. "Tremendously upset. Because our ancestors, our burial stupas are there. I wish [to visit them] one day if it's meant to be."
THE BIG BUSINESS OF BUDDHISM
Misbehaving monks are not an entirely new phenomenon in Thailand. In the mid-1990s, the country was scandalised by reports from women who had had sexual encounters with Phra Yantra Amaro Bhikku, a charismatic Buddhist preacher who travelled the globe spreading the faith, until he was expelled from the monkhood.
Just over a decade ago, it was Wirapol Sukphol who shot to online infamy when a YouTube video of him seated in a private jet, holding a luxury designer bag and flicking through wads of cash, went viral.
Sukphol's lavish display of wealth provoked outrage, and later led to a criminal investigation, which found him guilty of money laundering and sexual offences.
Monks are strictly forbidden from accumulating personal wealth, but Phra Paisal Visalo fears some are immersing themselves too deeply in the culture of consumerism that surrounds them.
"In the past monks led the way for the laypeople," he says. "But now they do not lead the laypeople along the way of inner peace. They just follow the laypeople along the path of wealth and prosperity."
Coupled with Thailand's opaque system of temple accounting, the temptation to use the monkhood as a money spinner can be too much for some.
Thailand's 43,000 temples together raise an estimated $4 billion a year in donations from the public, while the government chips in an extra $170 million to help support them.
But keeping track of where the donation money goes is near impossible.
In the case of Wat Pa Thammakhiri, officers with the Central Investigations Bureau (CIB) say Phra Khom neglected to set up a board of financial administrators or appoint a warden – structures that would have at least kept temple money at arm's length.
Instead, as the money poured in from donors, he was able to "manipulate the assets in large quantities without anyone knowing," says Lieutenant Colonel Parnumas Saengsong, part of the CIB team that raided the temple.
In the end, the staggering scale of his embezzlement was only revealed when Phra Khom made a rookie error, calling his monks from the police station where he was being questioned to tell them to hide the loot. Investigators pounced and caught them in the act.
"Some had hidden it in the bell tower, some had buried it in the hills behind the temple and covered it with monk robes," says Parnumas Saengsong. "Our investigation team was stunned. It was a huge amount. But these people took it for themselves."
Thailand's temples are required by law to open their books every year to the National Office of Buddhism, the government agency that's supposed to have oversight of their finances.
But the NOB's director, Intaporn Jan-Iaem, admits that doesn't always happen, as was the case with Wat Pa Thammakhiri.
"That is why the National Office of Buddhism had to cooperate with the authorities, in this case the CIB, who are able to call for witnesses and evidence for investigators to inspect," he says.
Intaporn Jan-Iaem says his agency has only limited powers to conduct its own investigations and that's something he wants to see changed.
"Right now, if monks commit wrongdoing, the National Office of Buddhism can only report that information and evidence to administrative monks to review. The monk process is slow, I must admit."
He says the National Office of Buddhism needs the power to "summons those monks for questioning right away without having to wait for any monks' council."
CLEANING UP THAILAND'S TEMPLES
Some believers aren't waiting, and are taking matters into their own hands instead.
Police lieutenant colonel Sayomphu Kauljittisirodom doesn't look much like a Buddhist monk, with a handgun slung at his hip, police-issue haircut and biceps bulging under his blue polo shirt.
But earlier this year, he passed himself off as one to make a daring series of arrests.
In March, feeling burnt out after a 20-year career in the Thai police, Sayomphu did what many Thai men will do at least once in their lives – ordained as a monk for a few weeks.
"Being a police officer, one has to be ready in both body and mind," he says. "The best thing for me was to try for once to become a monk."
But before he'd hung up his robes, Sayomphu's colleagues received a tip-off about a potential drug ring operating at a local temple.
Together they came up with an ingenious plan: Sayomphu would go undercover as a monk and wait at the temple to catch the crooks.
"I just covered myself with the robe," he says, swishing the saffron garment over his shoulder. "That way a weapon and camera could be hidden."
In the end, two monks were arrested for using meth, as well as two dealers who had sold it to them.
"Generally, the public appreciated what we did and admired us for eliminating an enemy of religion," he says.
Sayomphu has vowed to keep weeding out criminals hiding in temples to stop them giving Buddhism a bad name.
"In future, people may no longer respect them and that will affect the entire monkhood," he says.
Some believe fixing Thai Buddhism's problems requires more than individual heroics.
They point to flaws in the system of administration governing the clergy to explain why so many monks are going off the rails, arguing it protects them by maintaining a culture of fear, secrecy and impunity.
In Thailand, monks are governed by the Supreme Sangha Council, a small group of some of the country's most senior abbots with authority over religious matters.
Supporters of the status quo say the current system is well-equipped to reign in wayward monks, as long as abbots are willing to enforce the Sangha laws.
"If the abbot of every temple supervises the behaviour of the monks of each temple, I guarantee there wouldn't be any problems," says Luang Pi Namfon, the abbot at Wat Pai Lom in the town of Nakhon Pathom.
He's taken monitoring of his monks to what some might call extreme levels, drug testing them on a regular basis to make sure they are clean.
Phra Paisal Visalo disagrees. He says the system governing Buddhism in Thailand is long overdue for a significant overhaul if it's to deal with its monk problem.
"Corrupt monks are not punished so the system allows corrupt monks to be widespread," he says. "It needs reform. A comprehensive reform."
He wants to see it decentralised to allow participation from laypeople, as well as better vetting and education for men entering the monkhood.
But for now, he's just hoping this religion of reincarnation can change before it's too late.
"There's some aspects of teaching have been forgotten, especially about inner freedom, true happiness, the happiness that is beyond material happiness," he says.
"It should be restored. It should be emphasised. This is my key idea about the reform."
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